Paul Gross

Writer/lecturer on Israeli and global politics | Likes liberal democracy and Arsenal FC. Dislikes extremists and absolutists of all kinds.

[Daniel Sugarman @Daniel_Sugarman]

Ooooh man. I think it's worth showing you all the sort of stuff that this document says, because it is "grim". Really, really grim.

A 🧵

[Paul Gross @pauldgross]

He gets it.
Like “genocide”, the word “Zionism” has been deliberately misunderstood and false definitions have been propagated. In both cases the effect is the persecution of Jews.

[Rich Toronto @rich_toronto]

I am a Zionist. Many people out there don’t seem to understand what a Zionist is - and what it isn’t - so here you go.

I believe in the existence of a Jewish home land, Israel, in the land of Judea, where it currently is.

As a Zionist, I do not automatically agree with or support everything the country does, nor do I automatically agree with every government, every politician, every decision.

As a Zionist, I am free to criticize policies and governments of Israel, just the same as I am to criticize the Canadian government or the American government or any other government.

I can believe that the Israelis who spit on Christians should be charged, and I do.

I can believe that the violence in Judea and Samaria needs to be stopped, and I do.

I can believe that every single Israeli, regardless of religion, who commits rape, should be tried and should face the harshest punishments, and I do.

I can believe that every single war crime committed by an Israeli should be prosecuted, and I do.

I can believe that Israel should be held to the same standards of every other nation, and I do.

The only things I don’t do, because I’m a Zionist?

Call for the destruction of the only Jewish nation in the world.

Hold them to a far higher standard than everyone else, just because they’re Jewish.

Spread false propaganda about them, just because they’re Jewish.

Because even though you pretend that’s “antizionism”, it’s just masking your true motives.

Jew hatred.

[Paul Gross @pauldgross]

@KieranHowton @elikowaz Take it from a Palestinian, who knows a lot more about Gaza than either of us.

[Ahmed Al-Khalidi @khalidi79397]

A genocide is happening in Gaza, they tell us. Then scroll your feed:

Comma Cafee, just opened in Gaza City. Espresso machines, plated desserts, dim lighting.

Vanilla Café. Upscale, glass facade.

Nova Restaurant in Khan Younis: sleek wood interior, beachfront seating. Named, apparently without irony, after the music festival where 364 Israelis were slaughtered on October 7.

O2 Restaurant. pizza, ice cream, milkshakes, TikTok food porn.

Open-air markets in Gaza City with apples, avocados, oranges, bananas.

Supermarkets stocked for Ramadan with imported goods.

A "Gaza Coffee" brand selling 100% Arabica premium beans, taking online orders, with five-star reviews dated this year.

Even Al Jazeera's writer concedes the cafes "were built with expensive materials, carefully painted, furnished with tables, sofas, and elegant chairs, with glass facades and shining lights."

Now hold that next to actual genocide.

Rwanda, 1994. 800,000 Tutsi murdered in 100 days. ~8,000 per day. Hutu radio read names of neighbors to be hacked apart by morning. No one opened a café.

Cambodia, 1975–79. Khmer Rouge emptied Phnom Penh at gunpoint in 72 hours. Currency abolished. Markets abolished. Eyeglasses got you killed. Two million dead.

The Holocaust. Warsaw Ghetto: 92,000 dead of starvation and disease before the deportations even began. Auschwitz processed 6,000 people a day into smoke. There were no glass-facade espresso bars in Łódź in 1943.

Srebrenica, July 1995. 8,372 men and boys executed in days. No restaurants reopened. They were in mass graves.

Armenia, 1915. Death marches into the Syrian desert. No imported avocados.

The common thread of genocide is that the targeted population is not allowed to exist. Not in cafes, not in markets, not in their homes, not anywhere. The perpetrator's entire project is their absence.

Gaza in 2026, by every honest description, is something else: a brutal war zone, partially destroyed, with a population suffering real hardship and simultaneously a place where new businesses open, beachfront restaurants serve customers, and a post war economy is being written about in business pages. Both things are true.

That is what war looks like. Lebanon 2006. Mosul 2017. Mariupol 2022. Aleppo 2016. Civilians die and life adapts around the destruction.

It is not what genocide looks like.

So why the word?

Because "genocide" is the most powerful word in the post-WWII moral vocabulary. It triggers automatic legal obligations, suspends normal debate, and short-circuits proportionality analysis. Apply it successfully and your adversary loses the right to defend itself before the argument even begins. That is exactly why it is being deployed by a side that started a war on October 7, took hostages, embedded itself in hospitals and schools, and now needs the West to force a ceasefire it could not win on the battlefield.

It is asymmetric warfare with a thesaurus. The rockets failed. The tunnels failed. The word might not.

Coffee in Gaza doesn't prove there is no suffering. It proves there is no genocide. Those are not the same claim and the people conflating them are counting on you not to notice.

[Paul Gross @pauldgross]

This appalling situation, eloquently described by @elikowaz , is a consequence of the “genocide” blood libel. It needs to be challenged as the blatant, provable lie that it is. (And those Israeli ministers who’ve helped feed it with their own extremism should be out of office.)

[Eli Kowaz - איליי קואז @elikowaz]

For anyone who doesn’t follow soccer: this was a friendly. No tournament, no qualifying spot, no points on the line. Neither team's qualified for the upcoming World Cup.

Friendlies exist so national teams can train against real opponents in the off weeks, and historically to build a bit of goodwill. The stakes are close to zero by design.

Israel played Albania in Tirana on Wednesday. During Hatikvah the stadium booed, the harshest the players say they’ve ever faced, and then objects came down onto the pitch at the team. That’s the reality of being an Israeli athlete today. Israel haven't hosted a home match in nearly 3 years.

Oscar Gloukh scored the only goal in the 73rd minute, put a finger to his lips to quiet the crowd, and kissed the crest on his shirt. He was then confronted and shoved by two Albania players.

Israel won 1-0 and shut out Albania, a real achievement against a decent side and a hostile crowd, but few people will be talking about the result. The attention will go to everything around it instead.

I hope for a day when Israeli athletes can focus on the sport rather than the politics, but that day doesn’t seem to be around the corner.

[HonestReporting @HonestReporting]

“14,000 babies will die in 48 hours.”

That claim didn’t come from a random account online. It came from the United Nations, and major media outlets ran with it.

The problem? It wasn't true.

Presenter: @Erin_Molan

[Arsenal Rep @Arsenal_rep1]

Eze goal against Bayer Leverkusen has been named Champions league goal of the season, confirmed ✅

[Cllr John Carson @PostmanCarson]

That old line 'anti-zionism isn’t anti-semitism’ sure does end up looking a lot like just anti-semitism to me…

[Paul Gross @pauldgross]

@larryhagman12 @doyafup @RTEsport You know Billy Crystal’s Jewish, right?

[נדב איל Nadav Eyal @Nadav_Eyal]

ישראל גידלה ומגדלת, מסבסדת ומפרנסת, קהילה לא ציונית - דהיינו כזו שאינה רוצה בקיום המדינה כלל - בתוכה. מראשיתה, יש שם פלגים שאינם רק לא ציונים, אלא גם אנטי ציונים, ורואים במדינה שיקוץ יסודי . גם הם זוכים לטיפוח. התמונות של החיילות והמון נבער וקיצוני שרודף אחריהן- וזה המון נבער וקיצוני - הן התפתחות טבעית לגמרי למגמה הזו.

קו ישר עובר כמובן ממנה לסוגיית סירוב העסקנים החרדים לגיוס, והבהרות רבנים שדם חרדי הוא שפוטר אותך, לא לימוד תורה.
ההודעות כעת של פוליטיקאים ששיתפו ומשתפים פעולה עם הסדר פוליטי רקוב שפשוט מנסר את עצם קיום המדינה הן צבועות כשם שהן קשקוש. הם רוצים בהסדר הקיים ולעזאזל עם העתיד. אכול ושתה כי מחר מישהו אחר ימות - נניח בשירות בצה"ל.

על ההסדר המושחת עם העסקנים החרדים, שהחרדים וילדיהם הם גם קורבן שלו, יפים מילותיו של ז'בוטינסקי:
כן, לשבור. ממש אין ברירה.

[Paul Gross @pauldgross]

@TomCantonMedia Why not Wembley?

[David Frum @davidfrum]

Powerful editorial in Canada's @globeandmail on the failure to speak plain about antisemitism: "The price of freedom of conscience and safety for Jews ... is set by their enemies."

https://t.co/ZpZt1z3eRO

[Paul Gross @pauldgross]

How about instead a database is compiled of public figures who spread the blood libel that Israel committed genocide in Gaza?
They can be divided into two groups: “Antisemites” and “Useful Idiots”.

[The Telegraph @Telegraph]

Zack Polanski, the leader of the Green Party, has signed an open letter demanding that a database be created of 2,000 dual British-Israeli nationals called up for service since the terror attacks by Hamas on October 7 2023

🔗: https://t.co/M2Vg5pII8a

[Ben Caspit בן כספית @BenCaspit]

עוד יום ברפובליקת הבננות:

•חרדים קיצוניים פורצים לביתו של שופט העליון סולברג

•עורך דינו האישי של רה״מ נתניהו מתמנה לתפקיד מבקר המדינה

•חברי כנסת מצלמים את עצמם מאחורי הקלעים בהצבעה חשאית בכנסת

•שרה נתניהו מראיינת את המועמדים לתפקיד המזכ״צ של רה״מ

•הקואליציה מקדמת את החוק לסבסוד המעונות לילדים של גברים חרדים שלא עובדים ולא משרתים

[Neri Zilber @NeriZilber]

Netanyahu govt, state of play:
—Appointed Bibi’s personal lawyer as state comptroller
—Justice minister refusing to abide by Supreme Court decisions
—Haredi gangs physically attacking Supreme Court judges, IDF officers & police officers
—Appointed Bibi’s loyalist military secretary as Mossad chief
—Northern Israel still under Hezbollah fire
—Passive bystanders in unfinished Iran campaign/talks
—Even Donald Trump losing patience

This is all since the weekend

[Barak Ravid @BarakRavid]

עומרי מניב חושף: יונתן אוריך נכנס לקריה למעלה מ-150 פעמים בזמן שעבד עבור הקטארים
https://t.co/K3sEU518ZU

[Paul Gross @pauldgross]

Excellent from @arielbeery on how Peter Beinart's proclaimed liberalism is nothing of the sort.
https://t.co/CNQdBRJxrO

[נדב איל Nadav Eyal @Nadav_Eyal]

המטרה של בן גביר, סוכות ושאר הכהניסטים פשוטה: עימות אלים עם הציבור הערבי לפני הבחירות, תוך שימוש בחלקים ממשטרת ישראל שמוכנים לשרת את העבריינות הגזענית שלהם. לבוא לנסות לפרוץ לביה"ס ישראלי עם מסור דיסק זו באמת רק ההתחלה. הם לא יירגעו עד שיישפך דם, עוד דם. והם לא יירגעו גם אחרי.

[Caolan @CaolanReports]

I asked a local councillor if the russian refinery here in Ireland should be sanctioned.

He said yes, if it was supplying Israel.
But Russia? No.

This is Ireland’s sanctions hypocrisy in 90 seconds.

[איילת שקד Ayelet Shaked @Ayelet__Shaked]

השופט יוסף אלרון גדל במעברה, בן לעולים מעיראק, הצטיין תמיד בכל מה שעשה. מי שמכיר אותו יודע כמה ילדותו השפיעה על חייו הבוגרים. הוא היה מהשופטים הטובים והחרוצים בבית המשפט העליון, נשיא מצויין של בית המשפט המחוזי ואני בטוחה שהוא גם היה יכול למלא ביושר ובכישרון את תפקיד מבקר המדינה.

יותר מזה: בשנה האחרונה שוחחתי איתו מספר פעמים בעודו נוסע וחוזר מחיפה לת״א ברכבת. הוא התנדב בספריה לעיוורים והקריא והקליט להם ספרים. הספריה הזו הצילה את סבתא שלי מחיי בדידות בעשרים השנים האחרונות לחייה, כך שאני יודעת עד כמה מדובר בעבודת קודש. זה האדם שהוא, ואני מלאת הערכה כלפיו על כך.

ללא קשר ליכולותיו המשפטיות של עוה"ד ראבילו (שעליהן איני חולקת), העובדה שחברי הקואליציה בחרו בעורך דינו הפרטי של נתניהו לתפקיד הזה, ולא באלרון, למרות שהם יודעים שזה מעשה פסול, מלמדת על סיאוב שלטוני וקריסת ערכית.

זה לא עניין של ימין ושמאל, שני המועמדים אגב מחזיקים בדעות ימין, זו פרימת הממלכתיות. האידיאולוגיה לא חשובה רק הנאמנות האישית.

[Hillel Neuer @HillelNeuer]

Today marks the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, when the Communist regime sent tanks to trample peaceful pro-democracy protesters. Their bravery will not be forgotten, including the man who stopped a column of tanks.

“Since that June day, I have been inspired by one of the most iconic figures of the latter half of the 20th century, even though I have no idea of his name. Like the rest of the world, I just call him Tank Man.” @yangjianli001